Transparent measuring devices are useful for measuring, marking, or creating designs on a background material. The present invention, as it pertains to transparent measuring devices, will be described in the context of the quilting art, although it will be appreciated that it can have application in other fields.
Quilt making is a creative art that combines facbric, color, and pattern design in ways that express individuality and creativity. A quilt is made by joining several layers of fabric together with hand or machine stitching. The stitching can be decorative as well as functional. The fabric layers of a quilt usually consist of a top fabric, a filler, and a backing. The fabric may have a pattern formed from a patchwork of fabric pieces stitched together, an applique attached to the fabric by hand, machine, fusing, or a design drawn or traced on the top fabric that may be highlighted by stitching.
To prevent shifting during the stitching of the pattern, the three layers must be handbasted from the center outward. Small items, generally less than eight (8) inches square, should be basted in a radial pattern along 30.degree. or 45.degree. lines. For larger items a greater pattern should be used with rows no more than four (4) inches apart.
Once basted, the pattern is created on the top fabric. For patchwork, this involves three basic steps--cutting a shape such as a triangle, sewing the triangular shapes to form a square, and sewing the squares to form rows of fabric. It is important that the measuring, cutting, and sewing of the pieces be exact.
There are several disadvantages to using a standard foot-long ruler or a narrow yardstick in making a quilt. First, the marks or lines on transparent rulers are difficult to see when their color blends in with the background color of the fabric, as frequently happens with multicolor quilts. Furthermore, these rulers are usually not wide enough to facilitate the marking and measuring of a square or radial grid patterns used in basting fabric layers, hand-tying quilts, or transferring designs. Typically, the ruler must be turned several directions to mark and check the pattern for size and parallelism. In addition, these rulers have no lines on them to enable the marking of a 30.degree. or 45.degree. radial pattern.